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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22668664">rose quartz</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/zimtlein/pseuds/zimtlein'>zimtlein</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Omega Ruby &amp; Alpha Sapphire | Pokemon Omega Ruby &amp; Alpha Sapphire Versions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, Pining, Possibly Unrequited Love</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 16:35:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>730</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22668664</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/zimtlein/pseuds/zimtlein</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Steven returns with a backpack full of stones.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tsuwabuki Daigo | Steven Stone/Yuuki | Brendan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>rose quartz</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The door gets opened. Heavy breaths, a sigh, Steven dragging his backpack inside. ‘Are you carrying rocks around in there?’ would have been a dumb greeting.</p><p>So he waits.</p><p>Steven’s back is turned to him. One by one, he places his Poké balls onto the table. The first one plastered with blue stickers, scratches covering the paint – his Metagross. The second one an Ultra ball – his Skarmony. The third one he doesn’t recognize.</p><p>Steven stretches, head to the left, to the right, shoulders rolling back. Watching him do some gymnastics isn’t all that exciting. So Brendan finally speaks up.</p><p>“I could be a burglar and you wouldn’t even take notice of me.”</p><p>He expected Steven to flinch. Or at least a hastier look. But Steven stays calm as he glances over his shoulder, a faint smile on his lips. “You really think I didn’t know you were watching me?”</p><p>Brendan doesn’t react to the obvious implication. “Then at least say hello.”</p><p>“Ah. But you are allowed to keep quiet?”</p><p>Brendan snorts as he comes closer. Steven smells of earth and stone. The whole house does, even when Steven isn’t here. As if a part of him is bound to this place. At least this one tiny part.</p><p>Silently, he helps Steven heave the stones out of his back. Ordinary gray ones, some of them with a hint of another color. For someone like Brendan, they all look the same. He doesn’t understand why Steven’s eyes sometimes light up with excitement when he talks about them. In the beginning, Brendan thought it was only his thirst for adventure. But all those vitrines in his living room speak of another story.</p><p>“Even though you could have it so much easier,” mumbles Brendan between two breaths.</p><p>Steven looks at him.</p><p>“Even though you could be the head of a profitable company and the champion of a whole region.” Pensively, he touches one of the stones, eyes the dust clinging to the tip of his finger. “Let those stones be sent to you. Be at home, not god knows where. Never having to abandon your house and your family.”</p><p>A small smile builds on Steven’s lips. “That goes for you too, doesn’t it? Instead of staying in Mossdeep, doing nothing and waiting for my return.”</p><p>Brendan wants to laugh. Somehow he doesn’t. Somehow it gets stuck in his throat. He sighs. “I didn’t wait for too long.”</p><p>“And what was your reason?”</p><p>“My reason,” Brendan repeats, questioning.</p><p>“For leaving your position as the champion.” Steven pretends to arrange stones according to size. The clacking sound echoes in the room. “After all, you don’t want to go and collect stones, do you?”</p><p>“Maybe I do.”</p><p>“I doubt it.”</p><p>Brendan doesn’t respond.</p><p>It doesn’t need words to let Steven know that he’ll be helping him. Steven gives short instructions. Every single stone has a name, despite them being only stones. It’s somehow silly, Brendan begins to think. On small plates Steven writes down letters, data, places of discovery. Kanto. Johto. Sinnoh.</p><p>Brendan doesn’t really want to know, and asks anyway, “Were you only looking for stones? Or did you talk to people, too?”</p><p>The response is a hum. “I talked. Sometimes.”</p><p>Brendan looks at him, waits for him to continue. It takes Steven some time to do so.</p><p>“Kanto’s champ is a very young girl. Did you know?”</p><p>A quiet laugh escapes Brendan. “So that’s what you’ve been doing. Collecting stones and talking to young girls.”</p><p>“Among other people.” Steven doesn’t join in on his laugh, but he is smiling.</p><p>Brendan knows he should leave. May told him so again and again, shaking her head whenever he wouldn’t listen to her. He shouldn’t have waited for him. But now it’s too late. Now there they are.</p><p>When evening arrives, he stares at Steven until his look is returned.</p><p>“I missed you,” he admits, quietly.</p><p>A second of incomprehension. Then denial. It’s easy to want to deny when you don’t understand, and Brendan swallows down the lump in his throat.</p><p>He adds, “I just wish I wouldn’t have to wait for you all the time.”</p><p>Silence. He has to look away. His face warm, he looks at his reflection in the vitrine. Eyes the stone in there. A pink crystal. Quartz?</p><p>“Rose quartz,” Steven mumbles.</p><p>They look at each other. Brendan can’t smile. “I see,” he says.</p>
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